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Lukeas14on How many high school stars make it in the NBA? (2019)

The chances stat is missing that NBA draft picks are not evenly distributed between high schools. Some high schools don't have a basketball team, most don't have teams good enough to produce NBA talent and a few have great basketball programs which will attract the best talent and produce more NBA players (ex. Oak Hill Academy has sent 33 players to the league).

Lukeas14on 12,000-year-old realistic human statue was unearthed

Yes they've been doing lidar scans throughout central america to detect ancient Mayan pyramids and cities that are hidden under foliage. They've identified thousands of structures but other factors have limited their ability to unearth them (# of archaeologists, funding, politics).

Lukeas14on Reddit is OpenAI’s moat

That's really only an issue for technical topics. Stack Overflow would obviously be a much better source of quality training data for the kind of questions you presented.

But for most things outside of that Reddit is by far the best online source that actually represents answers you would get from real people. Questions like what is the nightlife like in x city don't have a single true answer and thrive due to Reddit's the diversity of thought.

Lukeas14on Californians may tax the rich more to subsidise electric cars

Owning a car gives me the freedom to do a ton of things I simply wouldn't be able to do if I relied on public transportation / ubers / rental cars:

- Last minute or long term road trips.

- Get my 3 kids to 3 different activities in different parts of the city after school.

- Pick up cheap furniture from Craigslist/ FB Marketplace as soon as it's posted.

- Camping

- Coach youth sports and transport all the necessary gear to practices/games/tournaments.

I vote pro public transportation every time and use it for day to day work commuting. But it's really not hard to imagine ways that personal car ownership equals freedom for a lot of people.

Lukeas14on Bye-bye, Bitcoin: It's time to ban cryptocurrencies

> But dollars, euros and yen are backed by nations’ respective treasuries. If someone invents a cryptocurrency, any value is based solely on convincing others it has value.

They lost me here. Most countries indeed have currency that is backed by their nation's respective treasuries. However, those treasuries are filled dollars, euros and yen. All fiat money no longer backed by gold or anything tangible and whose values are based solely convincing others they have value.

Lukeas14on The real reason to end the death penalty

I agree that we shouldn't accept a lower standard of proof. However, life in prison isn't absolute in the same the death penalty is. There's always a small chance of the evidence changing and the justice system being able to rectify the mistake. There have been several convictions overturned because witnesses changed their story or were later found to be not credible, sometimes decades later. Once the death penalty is carried out, there's no going back.

Lukeas14on A case for using punctuation in Slack

When you're new to a job everyone expects you to ask a million questions and not know what internal acronyms mean (although it would also be nice if they were documented). It'd be suspicious if a new employee didn't ask enough questions. It may be uncomfortable but you should never feel bad about it.

I personally start to struggle with this after the first year when the grace period to ask "stupid" questions is over.

Lukeas14on Show HN: Discover live streams and virtual events

Hi, project creator here.

With the huge increase in live virtual events I figured it'd be useful to organize them all in one place. Youtube, Instagram, Twitch and Facebook are full everyday with livestreams hosted by DJs, dance teachers, art teachers, etc. However, discovering that they exist and promoting them is tougher than it should be.

My brother and I built this side project to help people quickly find live events they're interested in. Check it out and discover what's going on live right now. Or if you're hosting an event, submit it to the site.

Lukeas14on Bahamas Company Registry Leaked

He's not arguing whether or not we should have property rights. The question is which is more important, property rights or human rights. There are times when these rights clash and we as a society have to pick one or the other.

For example, if a huge natural disaster (like hurricane Katrina) wipes out the livelihood of millions of people and the government hasn't provided aid yet. Should a person who is hungry and lost everything be able to go inside a store and take food? He has a human right to live but that store also has property rights over their products. Some (not all) conservatives would argue that the hungry person should be prosecuted for stealing, while most people on the left would argue the opposite.

Lukeas14on Texas closes hundreds of polling sites, making it harder for minorities to vote

That's correct. "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

Technically all elections are state/local elections. We don't directly vote for anything at the federal level. Each state has full control over who which presidential candidate it sends its electoral college votes to. That's why states like Virginia can decide to send all of theirs to the winner of the national popular vote.

Lukeas14on Away’s former CEO is returning as its co-chief

I'm not sure why people even seek insane valuations - maybe VC push them into it or something? I don't know.

Because the founders get to keep more ownership of their company. If I take an investment of $100 million at a $1 billion valuation I own 90%. If the valuation is only $500 million I only own 80%. Why the company needs such a huge investment is a fair question but the insane valuation makes sense.

Lukeas14on Impossible Pork

I think genetically engineering animals to be braindead is itself the unethical action. If we're willing to sacrifice efficiency we could emulate what animals go through in the wild. They live a life full of socializing and emotions and then slaughtered for meat at the end.

Lukeas14on SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]

I once spent an hour sitting in the SF planning office on Mission and it was the most eye opening experience in regards to the city's building issues. Most of the discussions are done in the open so you can hear the conversations between the planners and people looking to get permits. Almost every convo started with "...so your permit looks good but I won't approve it until you make [some irrelevant, arbitrary change]". They would look through historical Google Maps images and find temporary backyard sheds, windows that had been replaced or door frames that were painted and refuse to issue until these changes were reverted.

I understand the need of a planning department to enforce safety codes, plan large construction like the Salesforce tower and make traffic decisions. But every discussion I heard that day was a planner making completely subjective decisions that, in my mind, shouldn't be anybody's business but the building owner. No wonder we have problems building enough housing when so much effort is exerted dealing with such minor design decisions.

Lukeas14on NBA's China dilemma: $4B at risk as Chinese TV cancels game broadcasts

They'll find a way to consume it. But the NBA will probably make much more money through legitimate products in China than if Chinese fans are watching pirated streams over VPN and buying counterfeit, unlicensed jerseys.

Lukeas14on Court says FCC’s net neutrality repeal can’t stop state laws

General opposition to regulation

- NN is not a cost regulation as far as I know. It's preventing companies from doing something, not requiring them to do anything extra.

Lack of competition, reduces choice

- These are the same thing and NN is not meant to be a solution to the lack of ISP competition. I think you're right that local regulations are the root case of that though. NN is meant to prevent reduced competition of services that rely on the internet, particularly those that require heavy data use. Would someone be able to start a Netflix today and compete with the media services owned by the ISPs?

Less than 3 ISPs

- Mobile service is not a replacement for home internet service. Even with tethering most households would go way over their mobile data caps if that's all they used.

ISPs will produce different packages

- This happens all over the world in places without NN. But since most of the major ISPs are also media companies in the US they simple zero-rate their own media. This has the same effect of reducing competition among online services.

Also your username switched around is Ajit P. That's a little suspect ;)

Lukeas14on Employers Used Facebook to Keep Women and Older Workers from Seeing Job Ads

I think that's the main reason why buying an ad in Cosmo is different from buying a targeted Facebook ad in terms of discrimination. Cosmo might be written with women in mind but anybody can go and buy it. But it's pretty much impossible for someone who identifies as a man on Facebook to see ads that are only targeted towards women. The Facebook example is more similar to a real estate agent who only shows certain properties to white families.

Lukeas14on CA Governor Signs Bill Allowing College Athletes to Profit from Endorsements

Anyone on a full scholarship at a D1 school already gets a monthly stipend, basically a small salary that covers miscellaneous expenses. It's not much but most student athletes simply don't provide any value to their school beyond that. However, there is the 1% of top athletes who are worth millions of dollars of marketing value and this bill will hopefully allow them to capitalize on that.

Lukeas14on CA Governor Signs Bill Allowing College Athletes to Profit from Endorsements

The players who have a good change of playing in the NFL likely heavily overlaps the players who will be offered endorsements. 99% of college athletes simply aren't good enough for either and will probably be unaffected by this.

Lukeas14on CA Governor Signs Bill Allowing College Athletes to Profit from Endorsements

The NCAA's main argument against paying college players is completely bogus, which is that there is an uneven playing field between "amateur" and paid players. In reality, some players already claim that advantage by coming from rich families, which according to NCAA logic is unfair.

The real separation between college and professional athletics is being a student. Rich and poor students both only have 24 hours in a day and as long as a significant portion of that is dedicated to classes, then that's fair enough for me. 12 units / semester is the current minimum.

Lukeas14on CA Governor Signs Bill Allowing College Athletes to Profit from Endorsements

Depth charts in college sports already work to even out the teams. The reason a top QB recruit would go to Notre Dame instead of USC is because USC already has 3 top ranked QBs and you wouldn't get any playing time until your senior year. Whereas at a lower tier school that same recruit might be able to start much earlier and therefore be able to enter the league draft earlier. Obviously this doesn't solve the problem 100% but you already see recruits taking this into account when signing and in some cases even transferring.

Lukeas14on Attorney General Barr and Encryption

So we need backdoors to catch a subset of consumers who commit crime. Is there not a subset of corporations that also commit crimes? Are those crimes not important enough for us to investigate using the same tools?

Lukeas14on A Boeing Code Leak Exposes Security Flaws Deep in a 787's Guts

Consumer grade GPS actually won't work at 30,000+ feet at speeds the plane would be flying. This is to prevent someone from using the GPS system to steer a ballistic missile.

Lukeas14on Canon rush to reassure investors as camera profits plunge

I think that huge investment is going to pay off several times over for whichever company is willing to make it. Canon and Nikon each share almost 50% of this market because their offerings aren't much different from one another. A DSLR that has the same functionalities, software magic and ease of use as a phone would be a game-changing product. Right now phone cameras are so far ahead technologically but permanently held back by physical form-factor. The only thing preventing camera companies from matching them is making massive investments in their software divisions.

The user base would be everyone who buys <$1000 crop sensor cameras, which is already significant. This includes parents taking photos of their kids playing sports from across the field, (un)official school photographers, Instagram boyfriends, all non-pro photographers who need separate telephoto lenses. Improving ease of use would expand this market greatly since the main barrier to entry is learning how to use a DSLR.

Lukeas14on How I Taught My Kid to Read

This is what libraries are great for. Kids will get bored reading a book they're not interested in just like adults would. My son was very picky about what he wanted to read and rarely enjoyed the books that I picked out for him. So every week we'd go to the library where he could pick from 1000s of books about literally any subject he wanted to learn. Once he was ready for chapter books we got him a kindle which has an even bigger library. Reading is now his goto activity before bed and during long car rides.

Lukeas14on There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

While it's fun for the kids it's also important for them to get used to and respect trains. I've found that kids who grow up in places where trains aren't as popular don't develop a healthy fear of them. When my son saw train tracks for the first time at 2 yrs old his first reaction was to run towards them. So trips like these can teach kids how to properly act at a train station.

Lukeas14on Table-Saw Kickback on Camera (2012) [video]

I agree that simply invalidating the patent would have serious repercussions on future safety innovation. But if we decide that it's beneficial enough to require, maybe the government could buy the patent from SawStop for a fair market value.

Lukeas14on Table-Saw Kickback on Camera (2012) [video]

If you're about to remove the riving knife, or making a cut that may twist the wood you should immediately ask yourself if there's a more appropriate tool to use or way to make the cut. If you continue anyways I'd see that as negligence as opposed to a mistake. (To expand on twisting the wood, the longest side of the piece should always be held against something while cutting. So on a rip cut it should be held against the fence. And on a cross or angled cut it should be held against either a crosscutting sled or miter gauge)

Not saying mistakes don't happen. I'm sure there are instances of people doing everything right and still getting injured. But as I explained I don't think it happens often enough and the injuries aren't serious enough to make the risk so unacceptable that we need to add $500 to the price of every new tablesaw.

Lukeas14on Table-Saw Kickback on Camera (2012) [video]

I think there's a difference between tools used by industry/hobbyists and products used by the general public. People who buy table saws are either professionals or at least have enough of an interest in woodworking to know the risks and know they need to learn safety tips. As opposed to products like cars or toasters, used by the general public who usually have no interest in how they work.

At the end of the day, it's really not hard to prevent table saw injuries. Use a riving knife, don't twist the wood and you'll pretty much never get a kickback. If something does go wrong you won't get injured if you keep your body out of the way. So don't stand directly behind the saw and use a push stick (I love my GRR-Ripper) so your fingers are never close to the blade. I'd guess the majority of woodworking injuries are due to people who know these rules but break them out of laziness or rushing. Table saws also aren't the only risk in a workshop. You can injure yourself just as easily on any other type of saw, jointer, planer, etc. It doesn't make sense for the CPSC to only require SawStop tech on table saws and putting it on every other tool would put the price of woodworking out of reach for most hobbyists.

From a quick Google search, 93% of table saw injuries are to the users' hands. The only actual deaths I could find were suicides. Yea it sucks to lose a finger but I'd argue that it's not the worse thing in the world. Pretty much everyone could still do their jobs minus one finger.

The one exception I would make is high school woodshop classes. Based on most teenagers lack of judgement, I think it does make sense to mandate that these woodshops only use saws with this technology. I'd be surprised if most school insurance policies don't already require it.

Lukeas14on The Hardest Woods

Some of the cheapest exotic wood you can buy is from estate sales for this reason. The person running the sale can look up model numbers and prices for tools they know nothing about. But even one familiar with hardwoods will have a tough time accurately and efficiently labelling a stack of boards covered in dust, wax and bleached by the sun. Obviously some exotic wood is easy to identify (ex. zebrawood) but most look like any other wood after sitting in a garage for years and are usually sold as such.

Lukeas14on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2018)

BAMTech | San Francisco SF | Full-time, Onsite

BAMTECH Media is the technology and digital media company spun out of Major League Baseball, providing end-to-end video streaming solutions over web, mobile, and connected devices. In addition to baseball, our platform powers video for partners including MLS, WWE, NHL, Eurosport, ESPN and more (including Disney's new streaming service). We are leaders in digital media at a time when more people than ever are choosing to consume their media over the internet.

The Provisioning team manages encoders, segmenters and other resources that stream hundreds of live events every day. We are constantly handling new challenges, striving for 100% uptime and scaling to meet the expectations of millions of viewers.

Our team is looking to add a mid-level full-stack engineer to our team who possesses a wide range of technical knowledge. This position will be working on the front and back ends of our applications that support several internal and external partners.

To apply visit https://www.bamtechmedia.com/careers or use the email listed in my profile.